At the south end of the sinksand river leading to the Temple of Time, there are some clawshot targets leading to a small system of caves. There are exits to various parts of the desert, labeled by the Goron who’s digging through the rocks at the end, looking for one of the three dragons who’s said to live in the area. The Goron says he’d heard of the sacred flame together with the Lanayru Sand Sea, and gives Link a key to the door. Once out the door, Fi pops up to explain that the area used to be aquatic, but the water’s gone, leaving just the sand dunes behind. In the caves nearby, Link finds a bunch of Aracha and a Goddess Cube.
At the end of a pier, there’s a boat with a timeshift stone and a rusted robot wearing a bicorne hat. When the timeshift stone is struck, it sinks into a niche on the boat, the robot comes to life, and a small area around the boat becomes watery again. The robot says he was the skipper of the ship that protects Nayru’s Flame. Unfortunately, the ship was taken by pirates, and Skipper believes they activated the cloaking device after throwing him overboard. Link and Skipper’s goals align, so they team up and set sail. This is a pretty cool effect: the Timeshift Stone aboard the boat creates an area of water around it so it can sail, a small moving lake around the desert.
The first stop is Skipper’s Retreat, where Skipper used to live and kept a good map of the region. Unlike most of the other robots, Skipper’s aware that he’s confined to the timeshifted area around the boat, so Link has to go up to get it. The road up is platforming and Clawshot navigation (borrowing Twilight Princess’ friendly Peahats), with a few Furnixes and Babas around and a Moblin with an indestructible shield, so Link has to use the up and over technique to score hits. There’s also a Goddess Cube Link can get to on his way up. Link eventually makes it up to Skipper’s home, and amidst the paintings of the ship hanging on the wall and a couple inactive robots, Link finds a chest with the map he needs.
With the map in hand, Skipper marks the Shipyard where the ship was built and suggests stopping there to look for clues about the ship. The construction bay’s front entrance is closed off, but Skipper suggests Link could take minecarts and ride around back. The minecart rides are set up to resemble roller coasters (complete with the large, slow hill climb at the beginning), with Link needing to lean into curves to stay on the track, and remembering the snowboarding sequence in Twilight Princess, I'll guess this is going to be a minigame in the near future. There are a couple Lizalfos outside, and a Goron in the first minecart station, but the rest of the facility is abandoned, with only Aracha (including a Moldarach rematch!) for company. Fi concludes there’s nothing useful here.
Skipper had hoped to avoid it, but there’s only one place left to look for clues about where the ship might be: the Pirate Stronghold. The Pirate Stronghold is a minidungeon; Link goes in a side entrance and finds a holder for a Timeshift Stone, but no stone in sight. A little way into the dungeon, Link finds a Timeshift Orb, a special stone that’s always active and designed to be carried. The rest of the dungeon involves carrying the Timeshift Orb, dealing with the things it brings to life, and getting it past obstacles it raises (electric barriers activate, rock formations that have fallen into the sand rise again). Once it’s brought back to the beginning, placing it in the holder opens the main entrance of the Stronghold. Outside, Link can Clawshot up to find a Goddess Cube, and the area has masts and sails taken from the ship, which allows Fi to calibrate the sword to dowse for the ship.
This may be the last chance Link has to go check out the new Goddess Chests before the dungeon, so he goes back up. One is on an island near Fun Fun Island, and the other two are on Skyloft: one on the waterfall island, one in the Bazaar. The rewards are a gold rupee, heart piece, and Potion Medal that doubles the duration of potions. While at the Bazaar, Link sets his Adventure Pouch loadout: Goddess Shield, three bottles of Heart Potion++, two Life Medals, Treasure Medal, and Heart Medal.
Dowsing for the ship is frustrating, because in addition to tracking it down, Link has to shoot it with the boat’s cannon to make it visible, and you can’t dowse and aim the cannon at the same time, so it’s find a location, then shoot and hope it hasn’t moved off before you were ready. Once the ship’s been hit three times, the cloaking device is disabled and Link’s able to board.
I’ve been kind of down on this game, so I’ll take the opportunity here to praise a great section (aside from dowsing, bleh). The timeshifted sailing was a clever idea nicely executed, and the whole region has a very melancholy feel to it, especially Skipper’s Retreat. Skipper’s one of my favorite characters in the game, with his understanding that he and everything he knew are long dead, but he’s been brought back by a Timeshift Stone and friendly stranger, at least for a little while.
Next: …and Mike Wazowski said, “That’s no kraken! That’s my wife!”
